Marcos leads VP race but Leni ‘sure’ of win

May 15, 2016 10:25 pm

Vice
presidential candidate Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. is now leading main
rival Camarines Sur congresswoman Leni Robredo by 995,207 votes, according to
official Certificates of Canvass (COC) gathered so far by the senator’s legal
team.

Administration bet Robredo, however, said she is “sure” that she
will emerge as the winner in the race for Vice President.

As of Saturday (May 14, 2016), 3:30 pm, Marcos had a total of
12,479,207 votes, compared with Robredo’s 11,484,092.

The figures are based on 102 out of 122 COCs, or 87.7 percent.

Controversy struck the May 9 polls after the camp of Marcos
exposed the allegedly mysterious introduction of a new computer program script
that changed the hash code in the transparency server of the Commission on
Elections (Comelec), suspecting that election results were tampered with.

Fears that the vote had been manipulated were raised after
Robredo of the Liberal Party suddenly overtook the almost 1 million vote lead
of the Ilocano senator in the count conducted by the election watchdog PPCRV

in less than five hours during which the nation of more than 100
million were mostly asleep.

The last lead of Marcos of 5,539 votes was posted at 2:59 a.m.
of May 9. Marcos had 12,823,523 votes while the lawmaker from Bicol had
12,817,985.

A minute later, at 3 a.m., Robredo took the lead, with 14,876
more votes than those for Marcos.

Her numbers climbed further to 12,938,123, against Marcos’
12,923,247.

These figures were based on the Comelec’s transparency server
count monitored by the election watchdog and Catholic Church-based Parish
Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV).

Since that time, Marcos never regained the lead based on the
PPCRV quick count and Robredo began maintaining a 200,000-vote lead.

The Marcos camp on Sunday reminded the public that only
completed COC will be the basis for the national canvassing of the votes for
President and Vice President by the National Board of Canvassers (NBOC) to be
convened by Congress.

The quick count of the PPCRV, it pointed out, is not the basis
for proclaiming winners of the May 9 polls.

Also on Sunday, Marcos attended a Holy Mass at the Baclaran
Church in Paranaque City (Metro Manila) together with his mother and former
First Lady Imelda Marcos, wife Liza, and eldest son Sandro.

Reporters failed to interview him because the senator was mobbed
by churchgoers who all tried to reach out to him.

Marcos said his camp does not believe anymore results being
posted by PPCRV and that they will just wait for May 25 wherein the NBOC will
start canvassing the votes from the presidential and vice presidential races in
a joint session of Congress.

But Robredo was upbeat about making it as the next Vice
President of the Philippines.

“Sigurado na po base sa numero ng Comelec pero siyempre hindi pa
tayo pwede mag-claim kasi ang pwede lang mag-claim ‘yung Comelec. ‘Yung
pinaka-purpose lang ng pagpakita namin ng numero, marami kasing nangangamba
dahil napakalapit nung laban, marami sa aming supporters ung nangangamba [We
are already sure based on the numbers from the Comelec but of course we cannot
claim (victory yet) because the only one who can claim (it for us) is the
Comelec. The purpose of the update was to appease our our supporters because a
lot of them were anxious due to the tight race],” she told reporters in an
interview when asked if she is sure of victory.

Robredo said they wanted to appease their supporters as early as
Tuesday but they did not want to use projections until they were absolutely
sure of the numbers.

“Kagabi late at night naging sigurado na kami, ‘ung kulang na
lang as of last night was 15 towns. Sigurado na kaming irreversible na siya.
Ngayon, as of 2 p.m. ngayon nine towns na lang ‘yung kulang. ‘Yung worst case
scenario na zero ako doon lahat ng towns na imposible din naman, panalo pa din
[Yesterday late at night we became sure, there were only 15 towns left. We are
sure that it is irreversible. Now, as of 2 p.m. now there are only nine towns
left. In the worst-case scenario that I get zero votes in all those towns,
which is also impossible, it’s still a win],” she added.

Robredo was referring to nine municipalities that are yet to
send Certificates of Canvass (COC), namely: Rizal in Laguna; Allen, Catarman
and Lope de Vega in Northern Samar; Binidayan, Masiu and Tamparan in Lanao del
Sur; Indanan in Sulu; and Bacungan in Zamboanga del Norte, which equate to
168,988 registered voters.

A total of 233,226 votes (168,988 plus 64,238 registered
detainee voters) have not yet been counted, according to Robredo’s camp.

Her lead as of Sunday afternoon was 257,567 votes, according to
the Comelec count.

Robredo, her daughters as well as her supporters, attended a
thanksgiving Mass for peaceful and honest elections in the Church of the Gesù
before her camp gave an update on the vice presidential race during the short
program at the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City.